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Inside the Rosenbach's historic house, Photo courtesy the Rosenbach Museum

Most people know the more famous fairy tales retold by the Brothers Grimm — Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel, etc. But the original stories the brothers told are often far darker and more disturbing than the popular versions relayed to children today. Maurice Sendak preferred those more chilling variations and has illustrated these stories often throughout his career.

In it’s continuing effort to cover all things Sendak, the Rosenbach Museum and Gallery has collected an assortment of his sketches, inspirations, final illustrations and musings on the Grimm tales in its summer exhibit Dreadful Things Happen: The Brothers Grimm and Maurice Sendak.

The small exhibition is broken into four sections, each taking its name from a recurring lesson in the fairy tales and displaying Sendak’s wide variety of illustrations along with a bit of perspective on the stories themselves.

Sendak fans will see many similarities between his work and these folk tales, from children with a bit too much independence to many instances of less-than stellar parenting. But the real value of the exhibit is in the many different styles Sendak used to depict these stories. Yes, Where the Wild Things Are’s illustrations are great, but the guy was capable of a whole lot more.

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The Mann Center is an amazing place to see a summer concert. (Photo courtesy The Mann)

Philly has plenty of great music venues, but few are better suited for summertime shows than The Mann Center in Fairmount Park.

With a lineup for late summer 2010 that includes MGMT, Pavement, Herbie Hancock, Yo Gabba Gabba, Tony Bennett, Cake, and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia with Fireworks, the Mann has a show for just about anyone.

And this weekend features two of those shows. On Friday night, the Mann aims to please jazz aficionados, hosting Herbie Hancock’s The Imagine Project. Best known for his work with Miles Davis and his 1973 album Head Hunters, Hancock will play hits from throughout his career, including cuts from his most recent release, The Imagine Project.

And on Sunday, progressive pop-synth outfit MGMT bring their psychedelic beats and unparalleled stage presence to the Mann, touring in support of their latest release, Congratulations.

Regardless of which concert you attend, the bigger question will be: do you get seats under the amphitheater closer to the stage and the music, or do you bring a blanket and sit up on the lawn to take in the amazing view of Fairmount Park and the Philadelphia skyline?

The Mann Center for the Performing Arts [Visit Philly]

The Korean Fried Chicken at Meritage. (Photo by A. Irwin)

Philadelphia residents craving Korean Fried Chicken (ahem, KFC) can finally chow down on the delicious East-meets-West combination within the city limits — but only on Thursday nights this Summer, and only at Meritage.

Like Meritage’s Tuesday “Date Night” special, the $25 Korean fried chicken dinner is intended for two, with five or six deliciously double-fried chicken pieces, a cilantro-heavy cole slaw, pickled radishes and carrots and a chilled sesame spinach, washed down with a Japanese Sapporo beer.

The side dishes are refreshing and well-portioned companions, but the chicken’s obviously the centerpiece of the dish. It’s tender and juicy, without being greasy, and is covered with a sweet and slightly spicy sesame glaze that’s likely to ruin every Chinese takeout experience you’ll have after eating it — and did we mention they fry it twice?

Meritage is a pretty classy place — definitely classier than the carts and fast food joints where KFC is typically sold. But the sticky pieces can be pretty messy for such a fancy establishment, and using a knife and fork to eat it is pretty much impossible.

Your best bet? Dig in with your hands and eat it the way it’s meant to be eaten, just try not to look too conspicuous licking your fingers.

Meritage Restaurant & Wine Bar
500 S. 20th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
(215) 985-1922
www.meritagephiladelphia.com

Outside the museum on Delancy St, Photo courtesy the Rosenbach

The Rosenbach sure loves Maurice Sendak. And that’s a good thing — there’s plenty to love about the famed children’s author, and the museum is constantly coming up with creative exhibits that showcase Sendak’s creative talents and spirited personality.

Most recently, the Rosenbach’s offering Dreadful Things Happen: The Brothers Grimm and Maurice Sendak, a look at Sendak’s illustrations and interests in the classic folk tales. Sendak illustrated many of the Brothers Grimm’s most notable stories, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Hansel and Gretel.

But the exhibit goes one step beyond just presenting the drawings. Through notes Sendak made on his translations of the original stories, the museum highlights why Sendak chose specific scenes to illustrate and what he chose to draw.

And if anyone’s qualified to speak for Sendak, it’s the Rosenbach.

Dreadful Things Happen: The Brothers Grimm and Maurice Sendak
Now through Sunday, November 7, 2010

Rosenbach Museum and Gallery
2008-2010 Delancey Place, Philadelphia, PA
(215) 732-1600
www.rosenbach.org

Tagliatelle Mixed Seafood @ Alba

There’s a lot to be said for the menu options at Alba, the cozy Italian joint tucked away on King Street in Malvern. Chef Sean Weinberg makes full use of the open kitchen’s large wood-fired grill, churning out fresh takes on Northern Italian courses with a focus on local ingredients. But that freshness comes with a price — Alba changes its offerings on a regular basis, ensuring you won’t have the same dining experience twice.

In fact, only two dishes are mainstays on the menu — the Wood Grilled Octopus and the Rabbit Agnolotti Del Plin. But it’s easy to see why Alba keeps them around. Both made great use of their slightly more exotic main ingredients. The octopus had a great texture and was grilled well, with crisp grilled edges contrasting the tenderness of the meat.

Rabbit Agnolotti @ Alba

The rabbit agnolotti (think really, really tiny raviolli) showed the craftsmanship that goes into many of the dishes, with a mild rabbit flavor that was far from overwhelming inside the pasta.

The third appetizer, and the highlight of the course, was the Antipasto. The selections change daily, but the highlight of our plate was most definitely the bruschetta with local sheep’s milk ricotta, amazingly sweet English peas and pickled onions.

For our main course, we opted for the Wood Roasted Lamb and the Tagliatelle “Al Covo” Mixed Seafood. Once again, the wood grill made the lamb deliciously crispy, accented by its accompanying crispy spaetzle.

And as with the agnolotti del plin, the fresh pasta was the best part of the dish — though the excellent scallops, mussels and other seafood offerings didn’t hurt either.

Dessert @ Alba

It’s this varying menu with consistent flavors that sets Alba apart. And Apartivo, a new Wednesday night happy hour, will make sampling a selection of the menu and a few drinks that much easier. Once a humble BYOB, Alba now has a full wine menu as well as traditional and in-house cocktails (try the “Alba” — a refreshing sparkling drink made with Moscato d’Asti and Aperol).

In addition to libations, Apartivo will offer complimentary small plates of appetizers and main course offerings. It’s as good an excuse as any to stop by after work one night — but you’re probably going to want to stay for dinner too.

Alba
7 West King Street in Malvern, PA.
(610) 644-4009
www.restaurantalba.com

Yvette Ganier, Kate Czajkowski, and Genevieve Perrier in Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters.

Spoiler alert: The sisters never make it to Moscow.

From the very beginning of Three Sisters, it’s practically all the three titular characters talk about. The aristocratic siblings are stuck with each other in a small, unrefined town where knowing three languages is “an unnecessary appendage,” with only a few stationed soldiers to distract them from the doldrums of their everyday lives since their fall from high society.

But for Temple Repertory Theater’s production of Anton Chekhov’s classic, that stagnation’s a good thing. The characters may never go anywhere, but the actors portraying them make full use of Chekhov’s witty banter (adapted to more modern language) and multiple stories to create a dynamic social circle that’s fun to watch change and grow. Despite the show’s relatively long run time, the action moves quickly with subtle set changes and leaps forward in time that reveal a significant portion of these characters’ lives.

And there are a lot of characters –Three Sisters has a large cast with a lot of Russian names, which makes for confusing plot summaries and characters you remember but can’t name. But even with this web of romances and connected stories, the show itself is easy to follow, in large part because each character is well developed and faces a unique set of challenges, despite many coming from the same family and almost all belonging to the same declining class.

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Yvette Ganier, Kate Czajkowski, and Genevieve Perrier in Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters.

There are many classic playwrights whose works are still produced on a regular basis, functioning as both a way to analyze and gain perspective on a particular historical period and as an excuse to continue to present the great stories contained within the texts.

But often, the best modern adaptations of these plays take the stories out of their traditional settings and show them in a refreshing way that repositions the drama or forces audiences to question the author’s original themes. Temple Repertory Theater is doing that with two shows this summer — William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure and Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters.

With Three Sisters, Temple Rep and Director Dan Kern begin with the established story of an aristocratic Russian family’s failing status as the three sisters struggle to cope with their rural existence that’s replaced their upscale life in the city. This production, however, removes the period commentary and focuses instead on the core group of actors that make up the family and their experiences.

And really, actor-driven productions are what the newly created Temple Repertory Theater is all about. The company describes its stagings as “disarmingly intimate,” with audience members close to the stage and close to the actors.

Three Sisters certainly certainly has a dramatic enough story for this format and should serve as an excellent jumping off point for such productions.

Three Sisters
July 7 – August 1, 2010
$15 – $25

Temple Repertory Theater
1301 W. Norris Street, Philadelphia, PA
(215) 204-1344
www.temple.edu/theater

Most people know the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice — the couple falls in love, Eurydice is bitten by a snake, and Orpheus travels to Hades to try to win her back. He does so, under one condition — he can’t look back at her as the two walk single file back to the world of the living. He looks, of course, and she is pulled back into the afterlife forever.

The story’s tragic themes of undying love and eternal damnation are perfect for an opera setting, and there are plenty of notable works to choose from for a staging. The Opera Company of Philadelphia has chosen Hector Berlioz’s take on Orphée et Eurydice, the 18th century opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck. The production, directed by Robert Driver and designed by Philippe Amand, stars Ruxandra Donose as Orphée and Maureen McKay as Eurydice.

Many stories identify Orpheus as the son of Apollo (the god of music), so an opera based on his most famous myth should require some pretty awesome music. Expect OCP to deliver on this point, with a colorful and intricate set design to match.

Orphée et Eurydice
June 17 – 25, 2010, $15 – $130
www.operaphila.org

Kimmel Center
Broad and Locust Streets, Philadelphia, PA 19131
www.kimmelcenter.org

None of Plays & Players’ production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel actually takes place at a carnival. Despite its plot involving young love and boisterous musical numbers, the show’s underlying story is much darker, not suited for a festival setting.

The main crux of the play follows the tragic coupling of Julie Jordan, a reserved factory spinstress, and Billy Bigelow, a brash carnival barker who draws a lot of business to the local carousel with his good looks.

Early in the show, the event that sparks their romance — Billy losing his carousel job to pursue Julie — ends up being their undoing. Billy is unable to find work throughout the course of their short relationship. And his desire to support his growing family is what ultimately leads to tragedy and drives his attempt at redemption.

Carousel is a surprisingly dated musical, and it can be a struggle to find the right balance between delivering the overly innocent dialogue and jokes in earnest but with a hint of knowing satire. And of all the actors in P&P’s production, it’s Eileen Cela’s Carrie Pipperidge who embraces the old-timey feel best. Her voice and naive charms drive the scenes she’s in and make her secondary love story all the more compelling. Yet overall, the highlight of the show was Justina Ercole’s ballet interlude nearing the end of the show.

The production’s relatively small cast doesn’t allow for the sprawling ensembles and elaborate dance routines of other grander stagings (and the movie). But the paired-down presentation suits the Plays and Players Theater. Up next, P&P will stage Simulations on June 25 after Carousel’s final show on June 12.

Carousel
May 29 – June 12, 2010
$25-$30 ($15 student rush tickets)

Plays & Players Mainstage
1714 Delancey Place, Philadelphia PA
(215) 735-0630
www.playsandplayers.org

Outside the National Constitution Center, Photo by J. Smith for GPTMC

Whoever said social media is doing more harm than good to today’s students hasn’t seen the recent exhibit at the National Constitution Center.

We the People: Afghanistan, America and the Minority Imprint features photographs taken by students from Philadelphia’s Constitution High School and Marefat High School in Kabul, Afghanistan. The students collaborated over websites like Skype and Shutterfly to share photographs with each other, discuss their subject matters, and talk about the similarities and differences between their respective cultures.

The resulting exhibit, tucked away in Posterity Hall between Signers’ Hall (with all the bronze statues) and NCC’s main exhibition space, is an impressive but unassuming collection of 30 or so photo pairings with an interactive console at the center of the space. Each pairing includes one photo from a Philadelphia student below a photo from a student in Kabul. It’s the juxtaposition of these photos that really gives the exhibit its power. A photograph titled Tank Playground of children climbing on armored vehicles half-submerged in sand on a beach outside of Kabul takes on a new meaning when paired with Day at the Beach — a tranquil photo of an Ocean City, N.J. lifeguard boat in the surf.

And for the most part, the exhibit feels intentionally sparse, allowing visitors to draw their own connections between these photos from Philadelphia and Kabul. While some, like the beach scenes mentioned above, have a direct thematic similarity, other comparisons are more abstract, sharing only a prominent color or shape within the two photographs.

While the subtle interpretations make for a more engaging exhibit, at times the lack of context threatens to reduce the impact of the project, taking away from what the kids learned and how they went about taking the photos and choosing which ones would be included in the exhibit. That’s where the interactive console comes in. There, visitors can scroll through an additional 150 photos from Afghan students and choose between three American photos to pair them with.

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Anthony Lawton in 2009's Performance of the Screwtape Letters

Just hearing Anthony Lawton recite a selection of the correspondences that make up C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters would make for a plenty interesting night. His delivery and presence only enhance Lewis’ already thought-provoking musings on the nature of man, the merits of Heaven and Hell, and a bunch of other themes that sound way too heavy to be this entertaining. But as Lawton throws in a healthy shake of fire swallowing and tap dancing, the resulting production is as theatrical as it is provocative.

The Lantern Theater Company’s production of The Screwtape Letters all takes place in the office of one of Hell’s middle managers, Screwtape (played by Anthony Lawton, who also adapted Lewis’ work for the stage). But this is no Office Space-inspired bureau — shredded red drapes cover the walls, which also hold paintings of war scenes and one choice political portrait, evoking the pristine horror of Twin Peaks’ Red Room. The play’s driven by Screwtape’s letters of guidance to Wormwood, one of his never-to-be-seen “employees” on Earth, who’s working to corrupt a human soul away from God (who Screwtape calls “the enemy”) and toward a life that would lead him to Hell, where his soul could be consumed by Screwtape and his fellow demons, presumably at the next company picnic.

And it’s in this contaminated advice that Lewis’ creative and fascinating takes on humanity really propel the show. War is not inherently evil, Screwtape warns Wormwood, because for every selfish deed or evil man it creates , it also generates an act of heroism and a man committed to a cause larger than himself. Love and monogamy get an equally interesting perspective: “Marriage, though the enemy’s invention, has its uses,” Screwtape muses.

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Carousel is one of those Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals that’s oft overlooked in favor of shows like The Sound of Music, South Pacific and The King and I. It certainly doesn’t deserve this second-tier billing, and the Plays & Players Theater Company know that.

P&P will present Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel beginning with preview performances May 27th and 28th, with opening night May 29th. The show, going on at Plays & Players Mainstage, runs through June 12th.

Carousel’s story centers around two generations living in a small New England town, beginning with the budding relationship between Julie Jordan, a young mill worker, and Billy Bigelow, the local Carousel barker. Other relationships emerge as the young couple eventually marries, and Billy struggles make ends meet and their relationship begins to crumble.

The story then moves away from clam bakes and gossip to tragedy and redemption after a botched robbery attempt finds Billy trying to make amends for the mistakes he’s made during his life, in an effort to get into heaven 15 years after his death.

Carousel’s known for being one of the first musicals to rely heavily on tragedy in its plot. But like all good musicals, it’s just as well known for Rodgers and Hammerstein’s tunes and lyrics as it is for its story. Even casual musical fans will recognize cuts like If I Loved You, June Is Bustin’ Out All Over and You’ll Never Walk Alone.

Carousel
May 29 – June 12, 2010
$25-$30 ($15 student rush tickets)

Plays & Players Mainstage
1714 Delancey Place, Philadelphia PA
(215) 735-0630
www.playsandplayers.org